2008–2011: Lineup changes and early EPs In 2008, lead singer
Dan Reynolds met drummer
Andrew Tolman at
Brigham Young University, where they were both students. Reynolds and Tolman recruited
Andrew Beck, Dave Lemke, and Aurora Florence to play guitar, bass, and piano, respectively, for their band. Their name is an
anagram for a phrase only known to members of the group, which Reynolds stated each member approved of. The five-piece recorded demos that they uploaded to MySpace that year, but Beck and Florence left the band later that year. In 2009, Tolman recruited long-time high school friend
Wayne Sermon, who had graduated from
Berklee College of Music, to play guitar. Tolman later recruited his wife, Brittany Tolman, to sing back-up and play keys, and the band began to play shows together again. Lemke left the band shortly thereafter, leading Sermon to recruit another Berklee music student,
Ben McKee, to join the band as their bassist and complete the line-up. The band garnered a large following in their hometown of
Provo, Utah, before the members moved to
Las Vegas, the hometown of Dan Reynolds, where the band recorded and released their first three EPs. The band released a self-titled EP
Imagine Dragons on September 1, 2009, and
Hell and Silence on March 10, 2010, both recorded at
Battle Born Studios, in Las Vegas. Six months after releasing their third EP, ''
It's Time'', on March 12, 2011, they signed a record deal with Interscope Records on November 18, 2011. They got their first big break when
Train's frontman
Pat Monahan fell sick just prior to the Bite of Las Vegas Festival 2009. Imagine Dragons were called to fill in and performed to a crowd of more than 26,000 people. Local accolades including "Best CD of 2011" (
Vegas SEVEN), "Best Local Indie Band 2010" (
Las Vegas Weekly), "Las Vegas' Newest Must See Live Act" (
Las Vegas CityLife), Vegas Music Summit Headliner 2010, and more sent the band on a positive trajectory. In November 2011, they signed with
Interscope Records and began working with English Grammy Award-winning producer
Alex da Kid. Eventually, the Tolmans left the group. Drummer
Daniel Platzman and keyboardist
Theresa Flaminio were recruited by McKee in August 2011, prior to the band's label deal in November 2011. Flaminio departed from the group around the time of the band's deal with Interscope, leaving the band a four-piece.
2012–2014: Night Visions The band worked closely with Alex da Kid, with whom they recorded their first major-label release at
Westlake Recording Studios in
West Hollywood, California. An EP entitled
Continued Silence was released on February 14, 2012 digitally and peaked at number 40 on the
Billboard 200. The band also released an EP titled
Hear Me in 2012. Shortly after, "
It's Time" was released as a single and peaked at number 15 on the
Billboard Hot 100. The music video debuted on April 17, 2012, on all
MTV affiliates and was subsequently nominated for an
MTV Video Music Award in the "Best Rock Video" category. "It's Time" was certified a 7× platinum single by the
RIAA. The band finished recording their debut album
Night Visions in the summer of 2012 at
Studio X inside
Palms Casino Resort and released the album in the United States on September 4, 2012. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart with first week sales in excess of 83,000 copies, the highest charting for a debut rock album since 2006. The album also reached No. 1 on the Billboard
Alternative and
Rock Album charts as well as the top ten on the Australian, Austrian, Canadian, Dutch, German, Irish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Scottish, Spanish, and United Kingdom Albums charts. It won a
Billboard Music Award for Top Rock Album and was nominated for the
Juno Award for International Album of the Year.
Night Visions is certified platinum in the US by the RIAA as well as in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The album produced three tracks that reached the
Billboard Top 40, four tracks in the
ARIA Top 40, and five tracks charting in the
UK Top 40. The album's second single "
Radioactive" reached No. 1 on the
Billboard Alternative Songs,
Billboard Rock Songs, and Swedish singles chart and has sold more than 14 million singles in the United States, entering the top 3 of the most selling songs digitally ever. It also smashed the record of the longest running song on the
Billboard Hot 100 by spending 87 weeks before being broken by
The Weeknd's "
Blinding Lights" in 2021. "Radioactive" stayed at No. 1 on the Hot Rock Songs chart for a record-breaking 23 weeks and ultimately became the genre's biggest hit of 2013. It peaked at No. 3, becoming their first top ten single in the United States and broke the record for the longest run into the top five. It is the best-selling rock song on the Nielsen SoundScan running list of best-selling rock songs in digital history. By the end of 2013, "Radioactive" had already sold over three million copies.
Rolling Stone called it "the biggest rock hit of the year". It was also the most streamed song of 2013 on
Spotify in the United States. It was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Record of the Year and the
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance at the
56th Annual Grammy Awards, winning the latter of the two. The band performed a medley of "Radioactive" and "
M.A.A.D City" alongside rapper
Kendrick Lamar at the ceremony. A remixed version of "Radioactive", featuring a newly added verse from Lamar, was released the next day and performed on the February 1, 2014 episode of
Saturday Night Live. Third single "
Demons" reached No. 1 on the
Billboard Pop Songs, peaked at No. 6 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and spent 61 weeks on it. In 2021, RIAA declared that the song has become the band's third diamond selling song in the US. Fourth single "
On Top Of The World" reached a peak of No. 79 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and also spent 20 weeks on the chart. In the US, the non-singles off the album, "Bleeding Out" and "Amsterdam" were certified platinum while "Hear Me" and "Tiptoe" were certified gold. Imagine Dragons won the 2014
Billboard Music Awards for Top Duo/Group, Top Hot 100 Artist, and Top Rock Artist. Amazon.com called the band their "Favorite Rock Artist of 2012". In 2013, Imagine Dragons returned to Europe and North America with the Night Visions Tour. The band announced 13 additional US summer tour dates which also sold out. The band then announced a North America Amphitheatre tour.
Pollstar listed the band in their Top 20 Concert Tours list by average box office gross despite their average ticket price being the third lowest on the list. The band released a live album,
Live at Independent Records, in April 2013.
2014–2016: Smoke + Mirrors , Washington, D.C., on the
Smoke + Mirrors tour in July 2015 The idea behind the second studio album, dubbed as their "
New Year's resolution", was to create music and finish it when the band feels that their work is done. Since the beginning of the Night Visions Tour, the band had been writing new material for an upcoming album, and, even as early as the start of the tour, had been recording
demos for the album, before entering the studio. By the time that they entered the studio to work on the album, they had amassed 50 demos to work from. Prior to the album's release, Imagine Dragons released a number of singles for other projects including a song for the film
Transformers: Age of Extinction, called "
Battle Cry" in June, 2014 and the song "
Warriors" for the
2014 League of Legends World Championship in September, 2014. On October 24, they revealed the lead single to the upcoming album, "
I Bet My Life" via several visual snippets on Facebook and Instagram. It was released on October 27. It was sent to US Alternative radio for ads on November 3. On December 16, the band announced their second album
Smoke + Mirrors, along with the release of its second single "
Gold". "
Shots" was released as the album's third single on January 26, 2015. Imagine Dragons played at the
Mayan Theater in
Los Angeles on February 5, 2015. The half-hour set included the live debut of unreleased songs "Summer" and "
I'm So Sorry". On February 8, the band partnered with
Target for a performance of "Shots" as part of a live commercial aired during the
Grammy Awards.
Smoke + Mirrors was released on February 17. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200, making it the band's first number one album. The band began a world tour in support of the album on June 3 in
Portland, Oregon. During the band's tour, Imagine Dragons released two non-album singles. "
Roots" was released on August 26, 2015, and "
I Was Me" on October 12, 2015, via
iTunes. The band also released a cover of "I Love You All the Time" by
Eagles of Death Metal on December 18, 2015, in support of the victims of the
November 2015 Paris attacks. The
Smoke + Mirrors Tour ended on February 5, 2016, in
Amsterdam. The band released a one night only
concert film,
Imagine Dragons In Concert: Smoke + Mirrors, in select theaters on March 2, 2016, which was later released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Following the tour, the band planned to take a hiatus. They released the soundtracks songs "
Not Today" from
Me Before You and "
Sucker for Pain" from
Suicide Squad with
Lil Wayne,
Wiz Khalifa,
Logic,
Ty Dolla Sign, and
X Ambassadors in April and June, respectively.
2016–2020: Evolve and Origins during the Evolve tour in November 2017. Imagine Dragons began recording their third studio album in September 2016. The band teased the upcoming album by posting cryptic messages on their Twitter account for the next four months. They released the song "
Levitate", recorded for the film
Passengers, on December 2, 2016. On January 28, 2017, the band started posting a series of videos teasing the album's first single. The time-lapse videos featured lead singer Dan Reynolds drawing surreal images on a drawing pad.
Morse code was hidden in the videos and translated to "objects of same color". On February 1, 2017, Imagine Dragons released "
Believer" as the lead single for their next album. "Believer" was used as part of a
Super Bowl ad for the
Nintendo Switch. On April 27, 2017, the band released "
Thunder" as the second single from their third album. On May 8, 2017, Imagine Dragons announced their third studio album
Evolve, as well as a new track "
Whatever It Takes", which was released on the same day. A
tour in support for the album was also announced within the same day. The tour was held across 33 countries from September 2017 through September 2018.
Evolve was released on June 23, 2017, worldwide. The album reached the top five in most countries but was met with mixed critical reception. The album and the single "Thunder" received nominations for
Best Pop Vocal Album and
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, respectively, at the
60th Annual Grammy Awards. "Whatever It Takes" was released as an official single off the album a few months later on October 6, 2017. The song won the
MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in
2018. On February 14, 2018, Imagine Dragons announced a new single titled "
Next to Me" on Twitter. The song was released as part of a re-issue of
Evolve on February 21, 2018. On June 12, 2018, Imagine Dragons announced a new single in collaboration with
Kygo titled "
Born to Be Yours" on Twitter. The song was released on June 15, 2018. In 2018, Imagine Dragons also became co-owners of esports team
Rogue. On July 12, 2018, Imagine Dragons announced a new single titled "
Natural" on Twitter. The song was released on July 17, 2018. The song was used as the anthem for the 2018
ESPN College Football season. The band concluded the Evolve tour in Tampa, Florida on August 10. On September 18, 2018, Imagine Dragons announced a new single titled "
Zero", which was released the following day. It was used in the end credits of the
Walt Disney Animation Studios film
Ralph Breaks the Internet. On October 3, 2018, Imagine Dragons announced their fourth studio album,
Origins, which was released on November 9, 2018. "Natural" and "Zero" serve as the lead singles off the album, while "
Born to Be Yours" is featured on the international deluxe edition of the album. The band has described this album as a sister album to their previous work
Evolve. On October 31, 2018, Imagine Dragons released the third single off the album, "
Machine". Lastly, on November 6, 2018, Imagine Dragons released the album's fourth single, "
Bad Liar".
Origins debuted at number two in the US, making it their fourth top five album. It reached the top ten in multiple countries, but received mixed reviews from critics. On January 7, 2019, Imagine Dragons performed the halftime show for the 2019
College Football Championship game. The band performed "
Natural", "
Bad Liar", "
Thunder", and a special version of "
Believer" with rapper
Lil Wayne. The new version of the song was released on streaming platforms the following day. In June 2019, Beat Games released a paid
downloadable content (DLC) music pack for
virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber, called "Imagine Dragons Music Pack", that includes ten songs by Imagine Dragons. On June 20, 2019, Imagine Dragons released a new version "
Birds", featuring Italian singer
Elisa, as the fifth and final single from
Origins. On July 23, 2019, an animated video for the original version of the song was released. In December 2019, Reynolds announced that he was taking a break from producing and writing music to focus on fatherhood. On January 20, 2020, the band released a music video for "Nothing Left to Say", a song from their debut album
Night Visions.
2021–2023: Mercury – Acts 1 & 2 On March 8, 2021, Imagine Dragons announced the release of two singles, "
Follow You" and "
Cutthroat", which were released on March 12. The band began teasing their upcoming album which was executively produced by
Rick Rubin. On June 29, 2021, the band announced the single "
Wrecked", along with the pre-order for their fifth studio album
Mercury – Act 1 a day later. The song was released on July 2, 2021. On April 6, the band announced that
Mercury – Act 2 would be released on July 1, 2022. The second single, "
Sharks", was released June 24, 2022. The 18-track album was released as part of a compilation album containing both
Mercury albums. Three singles from
Mercury – Act 2 were released following its release: "
I Don't Like Myself", on October 10, 2022, "
Symphony", on November 7, and "
Crushed", on May 10, 2023. The music video for "I Don't Like Myself" was released in support of
World Mental Health Day. "Symphony" was released as a single with a visualizer video. The song was treated to an alternate version released with the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and Coke Studio and June 23, 2023. "Crushed" was released with a music video in support of
United24 on May 10, 2023. The band released a ten year anniversary expanded edition of
Night Visions on September 9, 2022 featuring two previously unreleased demos, "Love of Mine" and "Bubble". "Love of Mine" was released as a promotional single on September 2. On March 3, 2023, drummer Daniel Platzman announced that he would be absent from the South American leg of the Mercury Tour to focus on his health. The band's former drummer Andrew Tolman sat in for Platzman during the tour and all other performances throughout 2023. On July 14, 2023, a concert film titled
Imagine Dragons: Live in Vegas was released on
Hulu. The film showcases the band's full concert at
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on September 10, 2022. A live album of the concert was released on July 28, 2023. On August 30, 2023, they released the song "
Children of the Sky" in promotion of the video game
Starfield.
2024–present: Loom and Daniel Platzman's departure On March 10, 2024, the band began teasing new music on their social media. On April 1, they announced a new song titled "
Eyes Closed" would release on April 3. It was released as the lead single from the band's sixth studio album which was announced to be titled
Loom on April 22, releasing June 28. On that same day, the
Loom World Tour was also announced with 30 dates across the
United States, starting on July 30, 2024. On May 3, a remix of "Eyes Closed" with
J Balvin was released. On May 24, the band released the song "
Nice to Meet You" as the album’s second single. On July 2, they unveiled a music video for "
Wake Up", directed by
Matt Eastin. The album also marks the band's first studio album without drummer Daniel Platzman, who had stopped performing with them in 2023 and officially announced his departure on August 21, 2024. In his absence, Andrew Tolman continued to serve as the band's touring drummer for the Loom World Tour. On September 27, they dropped "
Stars Will Align", their second collaboration with
Kygo. On October 11, the band released a live album as part of
Amazon Music's
Songline docuseries. On the same day, they released a remix of "
Take Me to the Beach" featuring
Baker Boy, followed by additional remixes featuring
Ernia on October 18,
Jungeli on November 1, and
Ado on December 16. On February 21, 2025, Imagine Dragons released
Reflections (from the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)
containing fourteen previously unreleased demos from
Smoke + Mirrors, commemorating the album's tenth anniversary. It was preceded by the release of the promotional single "Monica". In March 2025, the band released the concert film
Imagine Dragons: Live From The Hollywood Bowl (with the LA Film Orchestra) exclusively in theaters. The film features the band's performance at the
Hollywood Bowl in October 2024, at the conclusion of a four-night residency. ==Musical style and influences==